


Glimpse of the future

by Arwen88



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 01:48:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19758103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arwen88/pseuds/Arwen88
Summary: In a universe where people can see a glimpse of their future if they get too close to dying, more and more people start experiencing the phenomenon since the war broke.Lewis has a close encounter with a bullet and suddenly Holland is years in the past, only an old scar on his forehead to show for it. Except someone straight out of his past then walks in and Lewis is not sure if he truly wants to go back to the war anymore.





	Glimpse of the future

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Muccamukk for betareading this and taking the time to explain English formatting, also for enduring me and my panic over how much it's different from the Italian one. <3
> 
> Written for the Giugnobaleno challenge of LDF, prompt 25: couple.

The last thing on Lewis' mind when he approached Dick as their forces retreated were the stories of how you sometimes could get a glimpse of your future on certain specific occasions.

Before jumping, maybe he had thought about it, wondering if it was true that there was a chance to get a glimpse of what was to be when you got too close for comfort with death. But since they had stepped foot on Normandy he'd had much more pressing thoughts. Like staying alive. Also making sure his regiment and his best friend wouldn't get killed were pretty high in his list of worries.

And that was precisely why instead of jumping on a truck with the rest of the retreating company, he had approached Dick to ask how things were, kind of hoping to convince him to step back with the men, before the Germans really got there.

The sound of metal against metal and the searing burn on his forehead came so suddenly that he didn't even know what happened as he fell to the ground.

***

Lewis gasped loudly, tense and covered in sweat, and lurched up only to stop as abruptly as he had tried to stand up. His mind felt as fuzzy as it usually was in the morning, but the pain was gone and, even as he gingerly touched his forehead with the tips of his fingers to assess the damage, he was too distracted by the room to pay any mind to the old scar he touched.

He recognized the room, recognized even his bed, same as the view out of the window.  
He stared outside, his mind too slow to compute how he could have ended up back in New Jersey of all things, before he actually started piecing it together.

His future.

"In New Jersey?" he commented aloud with a grimace, a tad disbelieving.

Except somebody opened the door to the bedroom and Lewis turned quickly, his breath catching in his throat at the sight of Dick. The man was wearing only his undershirt and underwear, relaxed as he pleased, and he was drying his red hair with a towel.

The man didn't look more than thirty.

And, as much as Lewis knew they were more than relaxed around each other, something nagged at his mind, telling him that he had actually never seen Dick that relaxed.

"Morning." Dick smiled crookedly at him.

"Morning," he returned, still a bit disbelieving and also with a voice too coarse to be normal.

Dick looked at him for one long moment before approaching the bed. And it spoke of Lewis' state of mind that he had not noticed that the bed had been slept in in both sides up until that moment.

"Hey, are you alright?" Dick asked with his soft and concerned voice, sitting on the free side of bed and leaning on an elbow to get closer to him. 

Too close, much more than they had ever done. And they could get really close, Lewis knew sometimes even a bit too much for everybody else's standards. But Dick's body heat against his side felt just right and before Lewis knew what he was doing he found himself leaning against his best friend, the best person he knew, the only one he had ever felt simply right to be with.

Except then Dick closed the space between them and pressed his lips over Lewis'. It was chaste, a soft touch that somehow felt more intimate than any sexual encounter Lewis had ever had in his life.

It was enough to take his breath away, blood rushing and a mild panic settling in his chest.  
"Did you have a nightmare?" Dick asked, brow furrowed and one hand pressing over Lewis' stomach to rub it gently.

"Uh?"

He knew that was not a good answer, but it wasn't like he could actually say anything else. He felt too caught up in the fact that they were clearly to the point of not being reserved about touching the other anymore. And Dick looked too handsome almost naked and lying beside him, his blue eyes looking up at him with concern. Kissing him like he had done so many times already, not that Lewis could remember since he wasn’t even from that time.

He tried speaking but his lips felt too dry, glued to each other, and he licked at them.

Dick exhaled softly, a smile on his lips, and he let his gaze briefly drop on Lewis’ mouth.

Lewis couldn't help himself anymore, he had to kiss the man back. Or at least he really wanted to, but his body betrayed him at the last moment. Instead he grabbed the other's forearm, stilling him and actually grounding himself with the touch.

He had to know what year it was, how they had ended up being so intimate, if Dick was actually living there with him in his apartment, if Lewis had divorced in the meantime, if he was reading too much into that situation. If at some point he had actually told the man he might have had the biggest crush on him. If - God help him - he had just screwed his best friend and was about to lose him to his own idiocy. None of it made actually out of his mouth.

"Are you in love with me?" He blurted out instead, eyes going round barely a second after as he felt the horror for his words roll over him, a grimace pulling at his lips as he considered how cheesy that sounded.

But Dick snorted a chuckle, a disbelieving look on his face. Instead of leaning back though, he reached up to cup Lewis' cheek, brushing his thumb over his cheekbone, and he smiled at him.

"Yes, Lew. Yes." He chuckled. "Is this about the milk? I'm not really mad at you for finishing it all yesterday night." He shrugged with a frown. "Sure, I'd be a tad more happy about it if you would at least leave enough for the morning coffee. You sure you're alright?" He asked after a short pause, concern back in his gaze.

Lewis couldn't help a snort.

His best friend was in love with him. They were apparently having a problem with milk, of all things in the world, and they had clearly made it out of the war alive and well. And together.  
He threw all restraint out of the window and he grabbed Dick's face in his hands to crush their mouths together.

***

"Nix!"

Lewis hit the ground with force, disoriented. For a moment, his brain seemed unable to understand what had happened, but the pain on his forehead was back and the smell of dust and blood reached him once more. 

Dick kneeled beside him, pale as a sheet, and put one hand behind the nape of Lewis' neck to sustain him as he helped his friend to sit up.

"I'm alright," he murmured, blinking and trying to get his brain to work once more. He stilled when he looked at Dick only to notice the way his blue eyes were filled with fear for the first time since they had met.

"I'm alright." He hurried to reassure him, even if suddenly everything he had experienced crashed down on him and he wasn't really sure about it anymore. "Am I alright?"

Dick nodded, even if it was clear he wasn't even breathing yet, and still he didn't let go of Lewis' neck or arm. "Yeah. Yeah."

"Yeah. Quit looking at me like that." He tried to get up, trying to shake off the feeling of getting that close to death. Trying to shake off also the memory of Dick that scared for him.

***

It took him hours before he was finally free to do whatever he pleased, and Lewis finally got the chance to sit and mull over what he had lived through that day. He was still a bit shaken by how close he got to getting shot in the head.

He spent a couple minutes worrying his temple, trying to keep his fingertips away from the real point that was giving him problems, the little burn of the bullet that - now he knew - would leave him with a little scar.

Working in intelligence, nobody was too surprised when he started asking around for stories about jumps in time. Sure, there were many non believers, but in the end it had been Sink himself to tell him that it was true. The man had told Lewis that many reports of people experiencing such a thing were coming from all around the army. It was common, the man said, when wars broke out and so many people suddenly were pulled too close to death in such a small area. So it wasn't that the stories weren't true, it was that the armies didn't want civilians to know too much about it, probably afraid people at home would try something stupid just to get a glimpse of their future for the kick of it.  
Not that that would stop people from talking, but cases were so rare that the majority thought they were just stories.

He wanted to go and find Dick, to tell him what had really happened to him in that moment on the dusty road, but his friend was actually the one who found him sitting there.

"You alright?" Dick asked clapping one hand on his shoulder, his touch always able to ground Lewis like not even his Vat69 could.

"Yeah." He nodded and threw a glance at the man sitting down beside him before he let his eyes roam around them.

Everybody was busy, trying to eat something and get some sleep before they had to move out. Others were running around giving and relaying orders, generally not minding the two of them. The fact that Lewis had sat in the shadows did help.

"You know what they say about seeing your future when you get too close to death?" he asked out of the blue, throwing a rapid glance at his friend.

Dick arched his eyebrows, tilting his head in interest. "Yeah? Did you?" he wondered, amazed but clearly ready to believe him if Lewis were to say yes.

And Lewis nodded his head, pressing his lips together at the dread of what would have happened if he were to tell, but then Dick leaned closer to him. Their shoulders brushed together and the man curled a bit to try and meet his gaze, curious, and Lewis was unable to avoid smiling.

"Yeah."

"So? What's in your future?" he asked with a soft smile and a glint of excitement in his eyes.

Lewis knew it was because it had to mean Lewis was going to get out of there alive, but also probably because he was the first to actually tell Dick he had experienced such a rare thing. But suddenly Lewis wasn't sure how to tell him. He kept quiet, letting his eyes roam the darkness around them, the glow of fire in the distance. Slowly he moved his hand closer to Dick's, pressing the side of it to his friend's pinky.

"You," he whispered staring straight ahead.

He turned his gaze on the man only after a moment, only to find out Dick was staring at him with a mixture of disbelief and honest to God shyness. Still he hadn't moved away from his touch.

Lewis wondered if he would have seen a blush on his cheeks if there was to be more light around them, but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

"It's all you." Lewis cracked a smile, slowly covering his friend's hand with his own.

Dick turned his gaze away, ducking his head, but in the shadows between them he turned his hand under Lewis'.

They entwined their fingers, squeezing softly each other's hand, and Lewis couldn't help the smile on his lips.

***

It wasn't like Lewis could tell his ranking officers that he didn't really want to leave his men behind and go jump with another division. It was the war and a man had to do what other men ordered him to. Not that that stopped him from drinking a whole bottle of Vat 69 as soon as he had few hours free, his mind going over the fact that Operation Varsity meant another chance to get killed in the sky before he even had the chance to jump.

A little voice in his mind reminded him that whatever happened he was going to make it, as shown by the glimpse of his future he'd had the previous year. It didn't stop him from hating the fact that he had been assigned to be an observer in the incoming Operation. He couldn't bring himself to look at the clean faces all around him, boys so young that they should have been still in school in his opinion.

"Were we that young?" he wanted to ask Dick, except he couldn't, not pulled that far from his regiment and everybody he knew.

And then the plane got hit and it became a matter of getting out and getting out fast, the plane blowing up in a ball of fire just behind him.

***

Lewis gasped, feeling too hot and breathless, the fear for his life running through his veins even as he could see that he wasn't up in the sky anymore, too close to the burning plane.  
He blinked hard, sweat slowly rolling down his temples, and took big gulps of air as he tried focusing on the man under him.

Dick was looking at him with a furrowed brow, clearly concerned, but then his features smoothed and he moved his hands from Lewis' shoulders to gently hold his face between them.

"The bullet? The jump?"

Lewis blinked, trying to regulate his breath, but after a moment things started making sense and he swallowed. "The jump."

Only after saying the words he started truly looking at the man, a groan escaping his lips as his gaze went down the flushed neck and chest of his best friend, finally noticing the feeling of the naked body under his own, the contact of skin on skin. His focus snapped back to his face when Dick pushed his forehead against Lewis', sex seemingly forgotten in light of Lewis actually landing in that moment in time after almost dying.

In the midst of the horror and fear it felt kind of reassuring to know that Dick was truly going to be a constant in his life, knowing even of his darkest moments.

"I think the boys are dead," he whispered, his voice cracking a bit.

But Dick made no reference to it, simply brushing his thumbs over Lewis' cheekbones. "But you're not."

Lewis closed his eyes, the now familiar guilt rolling in his stomach like every time he had to survive when people around him died.

The touch of Dick's lips on his clammy forehead felt like a blessing in the midst of his turmoil and Lewis held on tight to the man's shoulders.

"I need you to go back there and open your parachute, Lew."

Lewis inhaled slowly, finally starting to somehow calm down, but he didn't let go, not even opening his eyes yet.  
"Will you truly be here? In my future? This isn't just a shock fuelled dream, right?"

Dick's lips brushed against the bridge of his nose to press against Lewis' mouth, and slowly he started to relax at that contact, opening his eyes to look at the man when Dick put some space between them once more.  
"I will always be here, Lew."

With a rush of breath Lewis pressed his face in the crook of his friend's neck, hugging him tight and wondering if he couldn't just hide in there until the end of the war, safe and in the arms of somebody who truly cared for him.

***

Lewis opened his parachute a fraction of a second after, the tug of it taking his breath away for the shortest moment. He focused on the landing, grimly putting away every thought of what he had just experienced as he looked around him to see if someone else had managed to make out of the plane unscathed.

***

Lewis stared at the fire burning without even seeing it, Dick's words washing over him. He had tried paying attention to what he was saying, Dick's fake cheerful tone not enough to cover how uncomfortable he was relaying to Lewis that he had been demoted. Not that Lewis cared one way or another. Maybe he actually felt a bit relieved, having hated his now previous position and the need to deal with politics and have a pristine image. And that actually fuelled his guilt even more.

He was alive simply because as a ranking officer he was closer to the door than those boys. Just a few hours before those clean faced soldiers had been boasting about what they were going to do to the Germans, only to fall silent and tense during the flight, white as sheets, and then they were no more.

"Were we that young?" he asked in a quiet voice, not even caring if he was interrupting Dick's tirade on how the soldiers were heroes and not the cannon fodder that Lewis knew the army actually considered them. Of course Dick would think so, Lewis knew he should have expected it.

But his question managed to silence his friend.

Lewis didn't even have to turn his gaze on him to know that Dick was observing him, seeing past all his facades to what truly bothered him. He rolled the whisky in the glass slowly, needing its strength to push down everything he felt.

"I almost died," he whispered when the silence stretched without Dick even trying to fill it with words that none of them felt.

When instead of going away Dick started towards him Lewis inhaled sharply, raising his eyes to the ceiling. He tried to fortify himself now that it was clear Dick had managed to simply get it, understand how he couldn't care less about his own life. The guilt of surviving when those kids were probably better people than he was, the guilt for being glad about surviving too, it all clogged his mind and Lewis could barely breathe anymore.

He didn't fight the man when Dick took the glass away from him, putting it down gently on the table before kneeling in front of Lewis to search for his gaze. It was with an effort that Lewis brought his gaze on the man in front of him.

"I saw you again." His voice was hoarse but Dick didn't react to that little crack in his facade. Lewis forced himself to smile, even if it felt wrong and Dick didn't deserve that.

"I think we were having sex." He chuckled, but it felt empty and he almost wanted to take his words back, what he'd had for those few seconds had been too good to be used in such a filthy moment. But he knew he had to power through it now that he had started. "You promised you would be there after. After." He repeated, vaguely gesturing to what was around them, knowing Dick would understand what he meant. "And I'm holding you to your word, even if you technically didn't promise it yet." He tried going for a joke despite the smile feeling wrong on his lips.

Dick sighed softly, his open look almost unbearable to Lewis, but then the man leaned closer and pressed his lips over Lewis' forehead. "I could promise that even now," he whispered in the air between their faces, his blue eyes searching for something in Lewis'. "The war will end soon, and I have no intention of leaving you alone after."

Lewis exhaled, something he couldn't even name uncoiling in his belly. He took the other's face in his hands and leaned closer to press a chaste and quick kiss over Dick's lips.

Dick put his hands on Lewis' knees, probably just to balance himself after Lewis had pulled him closer, but then he squeezed at them and it was enough to ground his friend to the moment, taking him away from that morning and the deaths it had brought.

Lewis placed another chaste kiss over his lips, nothing more than a peck, but then it was Dick to lean in just enough to return it and before they knew it, they had started sharing little kisses like that.

They shouldn't have, not there in the dining room, so close to the front door and in plain view if somebody were to enter looking for them. But they could hardly stop now that they had started, physically needing to grab at each other, to reassure themselves they were there and alive.

Another tug at Dick’s face and the man tilted his head up willingly, pressing closer between Lewis’ knees as the man curled slightly on the chair to reach for his lips better. It took just the barest touch of Lewis’ tongue to the seam of his lips for Dick to part them, granting access to the more demanding kiss Lewis couldn’t hold back anymore.

Lewis moaned softly into the kiss when Dick returned it with no hesitation, and he delved into his mouth. He figured it was a testament of how deeply they were lost in it that Dick didn’t even protest how his breath smelled of whisky. Instead Dick moved his hands from Lewis’ knees to his shoulders, grabbing hard at them and pulling him closer.

They didn’t break apart for a long time, exchanging kisses with a frenzy that they had rarely succumbed to. Lewis let his fingers travel from Dick’s face to the nape of his neck, pressing into it to keep the man close, tugging at the short hair there and scratching at his scalp lightly until he let his hands drop over Dick’s neck.

He barely remembered that he couldn’t just start unbuttoning his friend’s shirt when Dick made a soft noise, making Lewis focus on what he was doing with his fingers already on the first button closing the fabric over Dick’s throat. He could feel his Adam apple bob up and down and Lewis felt a rush of emotions at the reminder that he was there, alive, making Dick moan in his mouth, making the man grow excited.

Dick made a soft sound when Lewis applied pressure despite his warning and let the first button slip free. But then a sigh escaped from his mouth when Lewis broke apart from him to trace his lips over Dick’s still bared throat, placing sloppy kisses over the heated skin and licking at the salty taste, inhaling deeply his scent of army soap and coffee.

Dick’s breath hitched at those kisses but instead of pushing Lewis away, one of his hands flew from Lewis’ shoulder to the back of his head, holding him close.

Lewis barely restrained himself to kisses, avoiding pressing and dragging his teeth over that pale skin to leave his mark on the man. 

After the war, he told himself.

With a sigh Lewis let his eyes drop close and he pressed his face against his friend’s neck much as he had done in those few seconds when he had found himself in bed with him years in the future. The smell was different but somehow still so similar, with a deep note that was just Dick under the army soap.

The heat of the moment slipped away slowly and Lewis wrapped his arms around the man, holding him close. Another sigh escaping Lewis when Dick returned his hug and tilted his face to lean his cheek on top of Lewis’ head.

Lewis contented himself with tracing paths over the other’s neck with the tip of his tongue, relishing in the shivers and sighs of pleasure escaping his lover.

He knew that they had indulged in their affections for too long already and were probably going to be interrupted soon. He should have pulled back, Dick should have got to his feet and fixed his uniform. But neither of them did anything to change their positions.

“I came back because you asked me to.”

It was barely a whisper muffled on Dick’s skin, but Lewis knew he would hear, would understand, and for a moment the man’s hold around his shoulders became almost painful as Dick considered once more how close he had come to dying.

“You keep doing that if it happens again, alright?” Dick murmured, a no nonsense tone that admitted no other outcome for Lewis. “Just come back,” he specified, the confidence in his voice betrayed by the way he still held him tight as if fearing Lewis would try to slip away from him.

Lewis cracked a much more sincere smile, huffing against the wet traces he had left on his friend’s skin.

“Can’t really leave you all by yourself, right?” he drawled.

“Right,” Dick murmured with a smile in his voice, finally relaxing against him.


End file.
